All titles in the Universal Monsters line have (at least this) one thing in common: the first issue always feels too short.
Not „too short“, in the sense of badly edited or rushed, but more like a good pop song that you want to put on repeat, or better still, like the first episode of a series that you then binge straight through.
The same goes for Michael Walsh's take on Universal’s Frankenstein.
When I finally reach the last panel, for short while, I leaf through the following pages in disbelief, looking for the next one. Unfortunately, I have to wait a little longer for this one.
Not so easy when you’re left with such a nasty cliffhanger. And also, you’ve just consumed a really good, unexpectedly different approach on of the most iconic monsters in cinema and pop culture.
Pop culture is also a good keyword to describe what is special about Walsh’s Frankenstein. Because his story has a very unique, a very modern edge. It’s not about the mad doctor or the tragically terrifying monster, but about what the monster is made of.
So here in issue #1 we get a stirringly emotional story about the hand of the monster, or more precisely, about its former owner. Who left behind a grieving son.
And it is this sad son who watches his father being dug up one night in the name of science and how the hand becomes a part of the monster.
Walsh, who is responsible for both the writing and the illustrations, gives us a very good, very balanced first issue that, on the one hand, recreates the gripping, scary-morbid mood of the original, while at the same time telling us a touching and frightening story about the backstory that you don’t even think about at first.
Visually, the whole thing is no less wonderfully realized (also thanks to Tonie Marie Griffin’s atmospheric colorwork). Very eerie, very gothic, very detailed, but still leaving enough room for the reader’s imagination.
Plus one of my favorite cover designs of this comic year.
I’m looking very much forward to the next (body)part.
(You can subscribe to Universal Monsters: Frankenstein at Walt's Comic Shop. Simply click HERE.)
Universal Monsters Frankenstein #1 (Of 4) Cover A Michael Walsh
€6,95
Mini-Series Premiere. A modern-day horror visionary resurrects one of the most iconic monsters. Award-winning creator Michael Walsh (The Silver Coin) presents an electrifying new vision of the horror classic. Each issue of the limited series tells the shocking story behind… read more